A process planning method for reduced carbon emissions

SummaryEnvironmental security is the integration of environmental and national security considerations at a national policy level. It is a relatively new and still somewhat contentious concept, although in some countries, such as the United States, it is increasingly being embedded in traditional security and foreign policy institutions. It is of interest to the industrial ecologist for several reasons. First, from the methodological perspective, environmental security issues are frequently complex, multidisciplinary, and multiscalar in both temporal and geographic dimensions. They are thus good opportunities to apply existing industrial ecology tools such as industrial metabolism stock and flow studies, as well as to support the development of new industrial ecology methods. Second, environmental security offers an important case study of an important fundamental industrial ecology dynamic: the movement of environment from overhead to strategic for society. This process occurs at many different scales, from implementation of design for environment methodologies within firms to integration of environmental and trade considerations in the World Trade Organization; and it is important for the industrial ecologist to begin to understand its underlying dynamics. Finally, national security is the quintessential raison d'etre of the national state. Accordingly, the integration of environmental considerations into national security policies and institutions, using industrial ecology methodologies and patterns of analysis, is a significant validation of the field.

Process planning is an important function in a manufacturing system; it specifies the manufacturing requirements and details for the shop floor to convert a part from raw material to the finished form. However, considering only economical criterion with technological constraints is not enough in sustainable manufacturing practice; formerly, criteria about low carbon emission awareness have seldom been taken into account in process planning optimization. In this paper, a mathematical model that considers both machining costs reduction as well as carbon emission reduction is established for the process planning problem. However, due to various flexibilities together with complex precedence constraints between operations, the process planning problem is a non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP) hard problem. Aiming at the distinctive feature of the multi-objectives process planning optimization, we then developed a hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA)-II to tackle this problem. A local search method that considers both the total cost criterion and the carbon emission criterion are introduced into the proposed algorithm to avoid being trapped into local optima. Moreover, the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is also adopted to determine the best solution from the Pareto front. Experiments have been conducted using Kim’s benchmark. Computational results show that process plan schemes with low carbon emission can be captured, and, more importantly, the proposed hybrid NSGA-II algorithm can obtain more promising optimal Pareto front than the plain NSGA-II algorithm. Meanwhile, according to the computational results of Kim’s benchmark, we find that both of the total machining cost and carbon emission are roughly proportional to the number of operations, and a process plan with less operation may be more satisfactory. This study will draw references for the further research on green manufacturing in the process planning level.

A process parameters optimization method of multi-pass dry milling for high efficiency, low energy and low carbon emissions

Healthcare systems account for a substantial proportion of global carbon emissions and contribute to wider environmental degradation. This scoping review aimed to summarize the evidence currently available on incorporation of environmental and sustainability considerations into health technology assessments (HTAs) and guidelines to support the National In stitute for Health and Care Excellence and analogous bodies in other jurisdictions developing theirown methods and processes. Overall, 7,653 articles were identified, of which 24 were included in this review and split into three key areas - HTA (10 studies), healthcare guidelines (4 studies), and food and dietary guidelines (10 studies). Methodological reviews discussed the pros and cons of different approaches to integrate environmental considerations into HTAs, including adjustments to conventional cost-utility analysis (CUA), cost-benefit analysis, and multicriteria decision analysis. The case studies illustrated the challenges of putting this into practice, such as lack of disaggregated data to evaluate the impact of single technologies and difficulty in conducting thorough life cycle assessments that consider the full environmental effects. Evidence was scant on the incorporation of environmental impacts in clinical practice and public health guidelines. Food and dietary guidelines used adapted CUA based on life cycle assessments, simulation modeling, and qualitative judgments made by expert panels. There is uncertainty on how HTA and guideline committees will handle trade-offs between health and environment, especially when balancing environmental harms that fall largely on society with health benefits for individuals. Further research is warranted to enable integration of environmental considerations into HTA and clinical and public health guidelines.

As a result of growing environmental issues and stringent carbon emission (CEM) regulations imposed throughout the globe, low CEM has become one of the essential requirements of manufacturing industries. Low-carbon manufacturing, which aims to reduce carbon intensity and improve process efficiency, has evolved as emerging issue that has encouraged a lot of research into quantifying the CEM of different manufacturing processes. To comply with increasingly stringent CEM regulations and achieve low carbon manufacturing, manufacturing industries require accurate CEM data for their products. In this work, an empirical model is developed to quantify carbon emissions for machining of cylindrical parts. The CEM associated with a cylindrical part machining is decomposed into CEM from electrical energy consumption, material consumption, cutting tool wear, and coolant consumption and from the disposal of machining waste materials. Electrical energy consumption of a machine tool is further decomposed into different energy modules: startup, standby, spindle acceleration, idle, rapid positioning, air-cutting, and cutting for accurate quantification of CEM. Energy consumption models are developed for each module, and are integrated to quantify the total energy consumption of the machine tool. Finally, the developed model is applied on a cylindrical part with three different process plans to validate the developed model for practical implementation in industry. The proposed model can be utilized in the manufacturing industry to quantify carbon emissions based on different process parameters before machining a cylindrical part to achieve low carbon manufacturing process planning and scheduling.

Digital economy, energy efficiency, and carbon emissions: Evidence from provincial panel data in China

Optimal renewable energy integration into the process industry using multi-energy hub approach with economic and environmental considerations: Refinery-wide case study

High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have been promoted to encourage carpools, reduce traffic congestion, and improve air quality. At the partial equilibrium level, commuting with three workers per automobile clearly reduces highway congestion, lowers carbon emissions, and saves energy compared to three single drivers. This paper develops a numerical urban simulation model to generate the general equilibrium effects of HOV lanes on urban spatial structure, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The major findings are that while HOV lanes reduce traffic congestion and improve welfare, the fall in transportation cost leads to urban sprawl, which results in higher dwelling energy use and a larger carbon footprint. Overall, the HOV lane policy has little effect on total energy consumption and carbon emissions. This is another classic case of general equilibrium effects reversing the partial equilibrium effects of an urban policy. In contrast, a gasoline tax policy leads less urban sprawl but is less effective at lowering energy consumption and carbon emissions. Imposing congestion tolls is a more effective tool at reducing traffic congestion, saving energy, and lowering carbon emissions.

High‐occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes have been promoted to encourage carpools, reduce traffic congestion, and improve air quality. At the partial equilibrium level, commuting with three workers per automobile clearly reduces highway congestion, lowers carbon emissions, and saves energy compared with three single drivers. This paper develops a numerical urban simulation model to generate the general equilibrium effects of HOV lanes on urban spatial structure, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The major findings are that while HOV lanes reduce traffic congestion and improve welfare, the fall in transportation cost leads to urban sprawl, which results in higher dwelling energy use and a larger carbon footprint. Overall, the HOV lane policy has little effect on total energy consumption and carbon emissions. This is another classic case of general equilibrium effects reversing the partial equilibrium effects of an urban policy. In contrast, a gasoline tax policy leads to less urban sprawl but is less effective at lowering energy consumption and carbon emissions. Imposing congestion tolls is a more effective tool at reducing traffic congestion, saving energy, and lowering carbon emissions.

The role of electricity market design for energy storage in cost-efficient decarbonization

This study proposes a Transformer–NSGA-III multi-objective optimization framework for high-rise residential buildings in Haikou, a coastal city characterized by a hot summer and warm winter climate. The framework addresses four conflicting objectives: Annual Energy Demand (AED), Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD), Global Cost (GC), and Life Cycle Carbon (LCC) emissions. A localized database of 11 design variables was constructed by incorporating envelope parameters and climate data from 79 surveyed buildings. A total of 5000 training samples were generated through EnergyPlus simulations, employing jEPlus and Latin Hypercube Sampling (LHS). A Transformer model was employed as a surrogate predictor, leveraging its self-attention mechanism to capture complex, long-range dependencies and achieving superior predictive accuracy (R2 ≥ 0.998, MAPE ≤ 0.26%) over the benchmark CNN and MLP models. The NSGA-III algorithm subsequently conducted a global optimization of the four-objective space, with the Pareto-optimal solution identified using the TOPSIS multi-criteria decision-making method. The optimization resulted in significant reductions of 28.5% in the AED, 24.1% in the PPD, 20.6% in the GC, and 18.0% in the LCC compared to the base case. The synergistic control of the window solar heat gain coefficient and external sunshade length was identified as the central strategy for simultaneously reducing energy consumption, thermal discomfort, cost, and carbon emissions in this hot and humid climate. The TOPSIS-optimal solution (C = 0.647) effectively balanced low energy use, high thermal comfort, low cost, and low carbon emissions. By integrating the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) Global Cost methodology with Life Cycle Carbon accounting, this study provides a robust framework for dynamic economic–environmental trade-off analyses of ultra-low-energy buildings in humid regions. The work advances the synergy between the NSGA-III and Transformer models for high-dimensional building performance optimization.

The dramatic changes in land use caused by human economic activities have a profound impact on carbon emissions and ecosystem service value （ESV）. In order to explore the evolution characteristics of carbon emissions and ESV on the spatial and temporal scales， based on the land use data of the Yellow River Basin from 2000 to 2020， this study used spatial autocorrelation and multivariate Logit regression models to study the spatial and temporal characteristics and spatial correlation of total carbon emissions and ESV in counties of the Yellow River Basin， then to explore the influencing factors of spatial correlation. The research findings were as follows： ① In the past 20 years， the total amount of land use carbon emissions in the basin has shown an overall growth trend， and the increasing counties were concentrated in energy-rich areas such as Inner Mongolia， Ningxia， and northern Shaanxi. The total amount of ESV increased first and then decreased， and the high value counties were mainly distributed on the edge of the Yellow River Basin， among which Qumalai County in Qinghai Province had the most ESV. The low value counties of ESV were mainly located in the economically active urban agglomerations such as the Shandong Peninsula Region， Central Plains Region， Guanzhong Plains Region， and cities along the yellow river in Ningxia. The lowest value of ESV has always been located in Xi'an. ② There was a spatial negative correlation between total carbon emissions and total ESV. The number of counties with high carbon emissions and high ESV has been increasing， mainly distributed in southern Inner Mongolia， eastern Ningxia， and northern Shaanxi， which was related to the location near the Yellow River and energy development. The double low type was mainly located in the gully area of the Loess Plateau， which is connected to the strip from the east and west. The low-high class was contiguously distributed in Qinghai， Sichuan， and western Gansu， and some were island-like distributed around the double-low class. The number of high-low classes was increasing year by year， mainly located in the core city area. ③ In low ESV counties， regions with better economic development and higher population were more likely to increase their carbon emissions. Taking the low carbon emissions from land use as a reference， the per capita GDP， energy use efficiency， and rainfall were significantly negatively correlated with the high-high and high-low categories. This indicates that most counties with high carbon emissions had relatively dense populations and less rainfall， resulting in higher energy dependence. Additionally， there was a positive correlation between low-high class areas and total population. When located in areas with low land use carbon emissions， areas with higher ESV values tended to have more a concentrated population distribution. The increase in land reclamation rate may encroach on forests and grasslands that can provide higher ecosystem services， reducing the value of regional ecosystem services. The research findings have certain reference significance for ecological protection and high-quality development decision-making in the Yellow River Basin.

The Energy-conservation and Emission-reduction Paths of Industrial sectors: Evidence from Chinas 35 industrial sectors

A novel framework for integrating environmental costs and carbon pricing in open-pit mine plans: Towards sustainable and green mining

Purpose This chapter aims to share the Dutch experiences with the transformation of urban and regional planning practices towards sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The chapter does so by answering the following research question: What were the main problems with the integration of environmental considerations in Dutch urban and regional planning practices, and how have these been overcome? This question is answered through a historical analysis of policy changes in the Netherlands, and through the presentation of two case studies. Findings The chapter shows that initial attention for sustainability resulted in the enactment of competing practices for environmental planning and water management planning, next to existing practices for urban and regional planning. The coordination of the resulting planning practices proved difficult due to opposing cultures of thought, and attempts to overcome these differences through comprehensive plans turned sour. The chapter illustrates how alternative solutions at the regional and urban level were eventually successful. In the Gelre Valley region, an open project approach translated in a sustainable regional plan. And in Schalkwijk neighbourhood in Haarlem, an environmentally sensitive conceptual framework – the Strategy of the two Networks – let to the incorporation of environmental considerations in urban planningpractices. In both cases, the insistence of the principal actor – provincial and municipal government – on sustainability issues was crucial. Originality/value This chapter introduces experiences with a transformation to sustainable urban and regional planning in the Netherlands. It will be interesting for practitioners and researchers of urban and regional planning practices and sustainable cities around the world.